The situation is a familiar one for the veterans on Rick Stansbury’s club.
The only way to make it to the NCAA Tournament is to be the ones cutting down the net after the SEC Tournament in Atlanta. Two years ago, the Bulldogs won four games in four days to win the tournament in Tampa. Last year the Bulldogs were seconds away from defending the 2009 title but fell in overtime to Kentucky in the championship game and ended the season in the NIT.
The Bulldogs (17-13, 9-7 SEC) enter the tournament as winners of four of the last five and have earned a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed from the West. MSU will play the winner of Thursday’s matchup between LSU and Vanderbilt.
Junior point guard Dee Bost said he has been trying to prepare the younger contributors on the team, like Brian Bryan and Renardo Sidney.
“We were talking about it two weeks ago, trying to prepare for it,” Bost said. “Just to go in there and win it all just to go to the NCAA Tournament. I told them there ain’t no feeling like going to the NCAA Tournament.”
The current group of Bulldog seniors holds a 7-2 record in the SEC Tournament, which Stansbury credits to the tendency of his teams to play their best ball late in the regular season.
Depth will be a concern for MSU as the Dawgs try to win three games in three days. The absence of Jalen Steele, who had a successful surgery to repair his torn ACL on Wednesday, has left a gap at the guard position.
Since Steele’s injury, Bost has played more at the two guard and spent less time on resting on the bench. The Concord, N.C., native is no stranger to playing lots of minutes, but injuries to his hamstring and Achilles have taken their toll on Bost, who was named Second Team All-SEC earlier this week.
“I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s very obvious he’s not as sharp as he was physically,” Stansbury said. “He’s the one guy on our team when you watch him physically he’s just not quite the same.”
Renardo Sidney, who spoke to the media for the first time in months on Tuesday, admitted he came into the season out of shape. If MSU does make a run deep into the tournament, it could be the biggest test of his conditioning so far, but the sophomore is ready for the challenge.
“I am taking this whole week to push myself a lot harder than I’ve pushed myself because I know they are gonna need me in the long run,” Sidney said.
One of the main reasons for MSU’s recent success on the court is the play of senior Ravern Johnson. After struggling through the early part of SEC play, Johnson has found his rhythm and is averaging 19.6 points per game his last six games.
Johnson’s Tweets criticizing Stansbury and his subsequent suspension were the last in a long line of negative off-the-court headlines for MSU this season. While going a month without any bad publicity is normal for most teams, after the fight in Hawaii between Sidney and now former Bulldog Elgin Bailey and Johnson’s Twitter controversy, it has been a refreshing change for the Bulldogs.
Senior Riley Benock said that is another reason MSU has its stride at the end of the regular season.
“It’s translated in our play,” Benock said. “We haven’t had any of the off-court distractions and stuff like that. We’ve been playing some of our best basketball of the year, and hopefully we can carry that over into the SEC Tournament.”
Stansbury pointed out the portion of MSU’s non-conference schedule that had them playing five games in five days is something that will make them more prepared for this weekend. He also used former Bulldog Jarvis Varnado’s effort in the 2009 and 2010 tournament runs as an example of the type of drive needed to compete.
“On that fourth day, every ounce he had, he was still giving it,” Stansbury said. “That’s what you have to do.”
If MSU doesn’t make a run, it could be the end of the collegiate careers for Kodi Augustus, Johnson and Benock. It would also start the offseason speculation on the futures of Bost, Sidney and even Stansbury.
For Benock, it will be a matter of keeping those thoughts away.
“I don’t like thinking about it that way,” Benock said. “More just going out and playing ball, and that’s what we came here to do.”